Hi everybody,We have a bit of a problem, and we're hoping there is somebody out there who can help/share their experience.We have a nine month old Sulphur crested cockatoo, she was hand reared and we've had her for nine months. She is currently very tame and cuddly, but not perfect of course. She has settled well, lives in a large cage, in the main part of the house, has plenty of company and attention etc, etc. We did our homework before we got her so were prepared for anything, well so we thought.Last week she had a small wound on her shoulder, but instead of healing, it has got gradually bigger, because as it scabs it itches and she picks it.We have taken her to a highly recommended vet specialist, who's giving her antibiotics to stop infection and says that the wound will eventually heal.He's given us anti-histamine cream with anti-biotics in it to smear on the wound and recommended we spray her with antispectic as she won't like the taste. Which she allows us to do without complaint. But the taste doesn't seem to bother her. We are also gently reprimanding her when we see her peck it.However it is getting worse. A collar is out of the question as the wound is right on the neck. The vet feels she will recover eventually. However we are concerned for her psychological health. The vet has recommened as a final answer a plaster cast, but obviously this will be stressful. However we think she is tiring anyway and not her usual self. She hasn't pecked a hole in her favourite book case for days. Whilst we have complete trust in our vet as a professional, he obviously doesn't know our little girl's character as we do.Would it be better to go ahead with the cast, rather than put her through a waiting game and then have to do it anyway? A month seems such a long time. If anyone has any thoughts, suggestions, ideas or has been through something similar we'd love to hear from you. And thanks for listening anyway.R & R

A parrot rescue that I frequent, has a Moluccan Cockatoo that is recovering from a self inflicted neck wound. They first wrapped her neck in a bandage then put the collar around her neck. The bandage was first folded so that it was a strip about 1/4" thick. Then wrapped around her neck and secured with surgical tape.

I would not recommend waiting for her to tire of picking at the wound. The parrot rescue has a number of birds that have not tired after a very long time. It is more likely that if left untreated it will continue to get larger and posse a greater health risk.

The wound on this Moluccan's neck has healed and the scab is almost completely gone after only three weeks.

One issue though is that she is unable to preen her feathers as usual and she has loads of them that are still incased. I spend time preening then for her (when I go there). My fear is that after the collar and bandage are removed she will pick at the feathers so much that another problem might develop.

I agree with Michael here, but with one addition. When a bird is picking, either feathers OR skin, do not react. At all. No "gentle reprimands" or anything else. Attention is attention to a parrot, and if they get attention for things, it will encourage them to do it more. That's why yelling at a bird if it's screaming or if it bites you is such a bad idea. It perpetuates the problem. They want the reaction and scream/pick more for the attention. That said, I'd collar the bird, much as I hate it, until it heals.

I completely agree to Michael's posting! Due to the itchiness the birds often let not heal the wound completely, in much cases they enlarge the wound and therefore it's the best solution to stop them picking the wound!

I made the same experience with my mutilating too! I used several kinds of collars, but the best for him is a soft collar, made from (oh je, how to explain??? ok, I'll try it, may be someone would help for understanding: )a material like Styropor, which you use to isolate canes (plumpers pipe insulations?). This material you will get in different sizes, has a slit going up one side, and that is the "opening" of the collar and you may also perfectly fit it for the bird's need. And, I'll be able to remove the collar (after removing the tape around the collar) once or twice a day, under observation by myselves, and let him preen or get a bath. And it's also no problem to re-apply the collar. OK, with my too it was also necessary to protect the soft collar with a hard plastic-tube (as due to his movements he made the Styropor too soft (the collar lost his "stickiness" and was able also reach his chest), so I made this plastic-tube about 2 cm smaller (in length), so that above and below remained soft ends. I would not recommend waiting for her to tire of picking at the wound, I think to protect the wound-picking is the best solution for her, otherwise it could get langer and and will not really heal. I know some cases where birds, after injuries (no bahaviour-problems!), enlarged the wound that they got so many problems with infections and other proplems, that the only way to help them was finally a skin-grafting, also by using a collar!My M2 was also skin-grafted in January 2002. I'm waiting for the last small srab to go, normally, after 3 weeks the skin was completely recovered, but the only problem we had and still have is, that under the graft and now scrab there are coming new quills (which is not normal!). Wounds (also sSkin-grafted) normally heals within 3-6 weeks, depending on the wound-size!

Therefore I would recommend a quick reaction to stop her! Even if you must use a collar!

I want to be a bit clearer about the bandage and collar. The bandage (I believe an Ace bandage) is folded such that it is a strip about 1/4" think, two inches wide and maybe six inches long (adjust width and length for your birds size). The bandage is wrapped around the neck (not tightly) with enough room for it to slide up and down the neck without a lot of effort. You don't want it real loose ether. The bandage is secured with surgical tape.

Then an e-Collar (looks like a cone with the point removed) is placed around her neck. The color is positioned such that it is above the bandage. The collar keeps her from picking at the bandage.

- you wrote: "We have a nine month old Sulphur crested cockatoo, she was hand reared and we've had her for nine months." Is this correct? Did you get her really "directly after hatching"?Or did you make only a typing error?

Dear Everybody,Many thanks for all your advice. We have now put a collar on Gorgeous. It wasn't particularly popular, but we don't have the stressed bird we thought we might on our hands. It's been on since Tuesday, and the wound is now pink not red, scabbing nicely. We've got away to go yet. We left the collar off for a little while tonight, so she could preen, but she just went straight for the wound, so we're going to keep it on full time for a while, with changes of course. We're hoping that this was a tick or accident rather than mutilation. But we won't be able to tell until the current wound is healed. Gorgeous gets quite a bit of attention, as she is with my partner most days as he works from home. She has toys galour, but isn't showing a great deal of attention to those at the minute, but we change and move them anyway. She is subdued, but yesterday was at least up to old tricks running along the dining table, getting her share of cheese. Anyway things are much better than they were. We were getting very anxious when we posted on Saturday.It wasn't very pleasant to watch. So again thank you all. She goes to the specialist vet again tomorrow, so it will be interesting what he has to say, as we put the collar on our selves. We will keep you posted.And any more words of wisdom gratefully received.best wishesRichard and Ron